First Lucerne-Tevinter War
The First Lucerne-Tevinter War was a massive conflict fought between the Empire of Tevinter on one side against the Kingdom Of Lucerne on the other side. Background Council of Heathfall Following the Invasion of Westbridge and the collapse of the Malfoy control base north of Westbridge the powerbrokers of southern Thedas would begin to realign themselves with an eye for Lucerne and away from Tevinter. Dowenshire, and Heathfall were already all but members of the Kingdom of Lucerne, while the Kingdom of Noveria, and Gnomer were powerful and had independant ideas but also wanted an alliance to assist in defending themselves agains the encroachment of The Empire, or Tevinter. The city of Lydes, and its dependant Kingdom of Anderfells would also become intertwined after the accidental murder of Anders Feron's oldest son by Lord Voldermorte had the effect of creating an immense enemy in the Anderfells. Dran Arryn would be the one that was finally able to bring everyone together when he was able to have everyone send representatives to Heathfall for what people came to call the Council of Heathfall. The meeting would take place in the large town of Heathfall, and the Lucernians would send the Starke's as well as Saiden Scarlet, while the leaders of all the nations came to Heathfall outside of Lydes of which Tylor Griggs was still recouperating from the injury he had suffered during the Tevinter ambush on the Anderfells capital of Hossberg. One of the main things discussed during the council was what there strategy was going to be to resisting the might of Tevinter if the conflict did come to a head. Noveria would be struck heavily as well as the Anderfells, and for that reason it was decided that Noveria would be heavily fortified against attack, and at the same time they were going to send a large troop of the Order of the Grey Dragon to rebuild several of the fortresses of northern Anderfells for the coming attacks. Lydes was prepared to finance much of the rebuild of northern Anderfells under the condition that Lucerne name them an Arch Duke within their kingdom and they became the head of the State that would be created north of Westbridge. This was heavily argued amongst the table, but eventually Dran Arryn was willing to accept this for a position of Grand Lord and lordship over his own province, as well as becoming the vassal of House Lovie over House Griggs. Taking of Tevinter The forces of Lord Voldermorte had been badly damaged by the defeat of Westbridge but there was a loyalist element for him to take refuge with in the Empire of Tevinter. While the ruling Archon, and many of the Magisters rejected Lord Voldermorte, there were sizeable elements of the Magisters, and the entire Kingdom of Neromenian that would side with him, but he needed to remove the current Archon, and many of his loyal Magisters if he was to take control of Tevinter. With this in mind the fully loyal Clary Folwyn was sent to the capital where she stayed close to the extremely skilled Sepheron and kept him from fully doing his duty watching the Deatheaters as they grew inside the capital. Because of Clary's work the Deatheaters took sizeable positions within the Magisters, and several Magisters were turned to their side, and with that the moment had come where the Deatheaters were ready to take control of Tevinter. The only remaining piece was to take full control over the Tevinter Chantry so that they would have a foothold in every kingdom. Using the Magisters they controlled they spent months eliminating threats in the other Kingdoms, and they were able to do this without any interference from Sepheron of whom was deeply enthrolled with Clary of whom had become pregnent again, but feined illness of which caused Sepheron to stay near her most days and passing the duties of his positon to Vezhlen Uz-Poellen of whom was from Neromenian and was a member of the Deatheaters. With the head of the internal police now a deatheater, and the leadership of the Tevinter Chantry in their power they would make their move against the Archon and the remaining loyalists. Arriving at the capital in heavy numbers, and bringing forth all of their forces at the same time the Deatheaters under Lord Voldermorte would take control of the capital without any of the loyalists having any kind of awareness of it. With the capital in their hands they moved forward and had Clary Folwyn convinse Sepheron that something massive was happening and that the entire Magister Countil needed to be called in and the Archon needed to meet with Sepheron himself during the council. Sepheron demanded to know what this was about but she said she would tell him during the council meeting, and Sepheron loved her so deeply that he believed her and did what she asked. As the loyalist Magisters and council members entered the capital and made their way to the Palace of Tevinter the Deatheaters moved in their entirety to the Palace and the traitor Magisters entered the meeting. It was not allowed to bring weapons into these meetings, and the only ones that carried any sort of weapon were the Holy Magisters of whom had their staffs, and thus could perform Magi easily. The Holy Magisters were under the Deatheaters loyalty and thus a massacre was without a doubt going to happen. As the council meeting begin Sepheron introduced Clary Folwyn of whom walked out with a staff of which Sepheron defended was because of her weakeness due to her pregnancy, and he was listened to because of how respected he was. She would explain the plot by the Deatheaters in its entirety outside of her role in the affair, and as panic broke up the meeting the doors smashed open and Lord Voldermorte walked in accompanied by dozens of Deatheaters. The Archon would be struck by a killing curse as he attempted to speak, and as Sepheron attempted to command the Holy Magisters they would strike him down, and before he could get up he was stabbed by the traitor councillers, and Magisters of whom had brought daggers into the room. Clary watched as Sepheron was stabbed dozens of times, before all the loyalists in the room were massacred leaving Lord Voldermorte to pick up the crown of the Archon and take on the mantle of power. Prelude The War The Battle of Saalfeld Main Article : Battle of Saalfeld Draco Malfoy would become one of the commanders of the First Lucerne-Tevinter War, and would fight at the head of the army of Tevinter. His promotion came after he had attempted to the best of his abilities to control the rebels in western Tevinter, and his success there led Lord Voldermorte to reward him with a command, and when he learned it was Saalfeld he was beyond exctatic to be rewarded with such a prestigious position. Draco would at this point still remain somewhat moralistic in his views, and he led his force to link up with the main force at Saalfeld with the simple plan of pacifying the region in the same way he had previously, and that was with less violence, and more outreach to ease the problems of the commoners. His army that he commanded around the province and town of Saalfeld became quickly known for the peaceful manner that it held the town of Saalfeld, and for this he had one of the most peaceful of the holdings of Tevinter north of Noveria. His wife Astaria Malfoy would leave his child in the care of their mother, and arrived at Saalfeld where she would act as a member of his council, and the Castellan of Saalfeld after the previous had deserted for the Lucernians. Her arrival would corespond with the dramatic increase of violence in his province as just weeks after she arrived a Lucernian army led by Robb Starke attacked the outlying region of Saalfeld. Seeing this Draco called for aid from the nearbye Antiva forces, but the commander of the Antiva gate fortress refused to send troops as he was not willing to weaken his own defences. With Antiva not coming to his aid he prepared to send word to the massive army at Dongret, but stopped when a small force arrived from Dongret asking him to send troops to Dongret as they were in need of assistence. Robb Starke was one of the main commanders of the Noverian Lucernian forces, and his battle group had been fighting against a large Tevinter force holding the large town of Dongret north of Noveria, and having little success other then killing a seemingly limitless number of Tevinter soldiers. With this in mind the Lucernians recieved reinforcements in the form of Westbridge of whom sent some four thousand troops and with this force Robb Starke split from the main army and moving alongside a force coming from Heathfall led by Lenwood Arryn, Rob Starke would move against the lighter defences of Saalfeld which if they took control of they would be able to flood the rivers north of Saalfeld destroy the bridges, and thus push the front back further. Robb Starke put Castle Shellfor under siege, and was able to quickly capture Castle Toffindell after the Lord of the Castle surrendered before there was even a fight over the castle, and to make matters worse Lord Liam Toffindell added his forces to the Lucernians further giving them reinforcements. As Robb Starke took Castle Toffindell, and sieged Castle Shellfor the way was open to the Lucenrians to the large town of Saalfeld of which had a castle within it, but there was no curtain wall as the two castles were meant to guard it, and despite the Tevinter efforts to construct one the one present only covered half the town, and was of limited quality. Robb Starke would move slowly against Sallfeld knowing he had a lot of time with Dongret. and Antiva unlikely to send forces, and while he did this he sent Benjamin Bradfoot and his cloaks into Sallfeld where they met with the local leadership. and worked to foster a rebellious movement. Finding a lot of resistence amongst the locals Benjamin was advised that several local Tevinter commanders were behind a lot of the fear amongst the people and if they were eliminated then large numbers would join the Lucerne cause. Benjamin moved against these commanders, and in a join action with Jerad, and Krylla he would arrange an attack on the three main commanders at the same time. Rebels sparked fighting in the town, and this distracted the Tevinter attention and during this spectacle Benjamin and his cloaks would assasinate the three local commanders sewing chaos behind the Tevinter lines, and seeing the Tevinter weakeness the locals would organize under Jerad of Lucerne of whom led them into infiltrating the main hold of Saalfeld, where they attacked the garrison based within the castle. Most of the Tevinter army in the form of some three thousand plus troops were camped outside the town in a large camp, but some fifteen hundred were within the main castle and in smaller garrisons in the town, and it was the holdfast, and these smaller camps that the organized rebels were attack. Horribly outnumbered within a now hostile town the holdfast surrendered as the gates were compromised by the rebel commander Calenhad Dendon, and the camps within the town either retreated, were killed, or captured by the vengeful Fereldens. Following the retreat of the Tevinter army out of Saalfeld, Draco led them westward as the northward region was heavily mudded and was difficult at the moment to traverse, and would have probably led them into an ambush or at the very least unsuitable battle conditions. Moving westward he was hounded by the larger Lucernian army of whom sent mounted troops along the flanks of the Tevinter movement and got troops in front as well, and as the Tevinter army moved the Lucernian cavalry was joined by increasing numbers of troops carrying Ferelden flags showing the turning of the province against Tevinter. Realizing the retreat would not reach the river Draco would stop the army in a massive clearing where he arrayed himself against the Lucernian force, and finally the Battle of Saalfeld was met. Draco was forced to leave a piece of his army facing each flank, and the rear as the numbers of the Lucernian sub forces around them had increased, and while this was happening the two main armies moved at eachother. The Lucernians had balooned to some six thousand troops while the Tevinter army through casualites had dropped to less then four thousand, but they did have what they beleived was an experiance gap by having been fighting for so long. The Lucernians also had some two thousand extra troops surrounding the Tevinter army from basically tthe entire rear, and both flanks, and as the two armies crashed into eachother these two thousand would attack the horribly outnumbered reserves that Draco had left to guard againsts the rear and flank charge. The fighting was intense, but the numbers of Lucerne, and the mounted troops they also had would cause the route of the left flank, and despite the middle holding for a time they too begin to buckle, and it was at this buckle that Robb, and Obella Starke met Draco, and Astoria on the battlefield. The four would fight and after two very one sided fights Draco is badly wounded, and Robb Starke is distracted by several Tevinter men at arms trying to defend their commander and this causes Draco to be carried away, and Robb then goes to the fight between Obella and Astoria to find Obella has fatally slashed her across the arm and then mercy kills her and with it this death that leaves the Tevinter army to retreat through the ambush behind them and after all was said of the original four thousand less then six hundred escaped the Battle of Saalfeld. Following the battle Calenhad Dendon was named High Commander of the planned Castle Saalfeld, while Leonas Bryland was named the Duke of the new province of Lucerne in the form of Saalfeld. Category:War Category:Historical Events Category:Historical Events of Europe